Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/208

stricted. A robin that the writer once owned would eat a large slice of watermelon down to the green rind in a single day. Feed the young birds upon the soft parts of the grasshopper, white grub worms, and chopped angle-worms, or if such food cannot be obtained, use the yolk of hard-boiled eggs mixed with stale wheat bread made into a paste with a little milk or water. When the bird grows older the following preparation may be given: One-third stale wheat bread well soaked in water and pressed, one-third dry grated carrot, one-sixth of hard-boiled egg, and one-sixth of bruised hemp-seed. Mix well into a paste.

Robins will acquire a taste for many dishes which in their wild state they could never have eaten. One bird described by a writer in the Science News became very fond of hot doughnuts and other equally strange diet.

Every country boy is familiar with "the long-tailed thrush," as they call this bird, and all of them know what a graceful bird he is, while, strange to say, but few know that he is an excellent song bird, little inferior to the mocking-bird in that respect. The brown thrush makes a good cage bird, and can be reared and kept upon the same food as that just described for the robin; their nests are generally found in low bushes among the thickets skirting cultivated ground.

is of a bright brown upon the back, with a light speckled breast and a much shorter tail than the thrasher. Why this bird is called the wood thrush, is a question; around Flushing, L. I., it is seldom, if ever, seen in the woods proper, but in the ornamental trees on the lawns and the shade trees in the